Geographic information systems provide for the archiving, retrieving, and manipulating of data that has been stored and indexed according to geographic coordinates of its elements. A geographic information system generally includes a variety of data types, including imagery, maps, tables, vector data (e.g. vector representations of roads, parcels, buildings, etc.), three-dimensional models, and other data. Improvements in computer processing power and broadband technology have led to the development of interactive geographic information systems that allow for the navigating and displaying of geographic imagery, such as map imagery, satellite imagery, aerial imagery, street level imagery, three-dimensional models, and other geographic imagery. Users can use a geographic information system to search for, view, receive travel directions to, and otherwise navigate a particular point of interest.
Many areas have poor address systems due to missing or unknown street names, duplicate names, and other problems. Some areas identify locations using relative addressing, such as “near the old bus stop.” In areas where postal codes do exist, the postal codes can represent large areas useful for finding an approximate location, but cannot identify the position a specific point of interest (e.g. the door of a house). Street addresses can be suitable for identifying the location of points of interests on named roads. However, points of interest away from named roads can be much more difficult to identify.
The position of a point of interest can be identified using geographic coordinates such as latitude and longitude coordinates. However, latitude and longitude coordinates can be quite long and easily confused. Moreover, many individuals do not understand how to use latitude and longitude coordinates to identify a position. Other systems for identifying the position of a point of interest include the Global Postal Code System/Natural Area Coding System and the Universal Transverse Mercator and the Military Grid Reference System. These systems, however, do not provide for the simple truncation of codes such that latitude and longitude degrade gracefully when identifying a geographic location with more or less specificity.